Miami-based national charting acoustic artist, SJ, was celebrating the release of his first full commercial LP (street date: May 31) with a private pre-release party in Miami at the famous Van Dyke Cafe. An exclusive event for the press and fans, and an opportunity for interviews with SJ, to hear him with a live band, and to obtain a free copy of his new album. With SJ on the stage we could see Joshua Stedman, Ozzy Carmona, Fernando Perdomo, Ruti Machnai, Randy Singer, Steve Kornicks, Erica Sommer and Cat Shell.

SJ is best known for his U.S. AC chart climbing folkie ballad, “I Like You”, which is also currently a Top 20 song on Sirius XM’s Coffeehouse Channel’s charts. It’s won awards in Hollywood and England, and is gaining popularity on Australian radio. SJ, also fluent in Spanish, released a Spanish-language version of his single, which has just been nominated as one of 14 finalists in the Latin category (out of thousands) in Nashville’s prestigious International Songwriting Contest. Both versions were mixed and mastered by multi-Grammy and Latin Grammy Award Winning engineer Carlos Alvarez.

SJ is returning to South Florida for the release after a 3-month west coast tour with performances in Colorado and California, and Chicago and NYC (including a live performance Sirius XM’s studios - a coveted segment shared by Jack Johnson, Natalie Merchant, Norah Jones and many other famous singer-songwriters. “Coffee” is currently being mixed by industry legend multi-platinum engineer Bob Rosa (Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson, Prince, Whitney Houston et al), and is being mastered by Sterling Sound in NYC. SJ’s style is a blend of acoustic rock and folk, with a soulful twist. His upcoming 12-song album is a clever mix of a classic Nashville-acoustic-string sound with a distinct percussive rhythm akin to Miami and an underlying west coast beach-rock groove.

SJ’s back story is a bit unorthodox but quite interesting. He’s pursuing his music because it’s his passion, and while still young enough he has left behind a career as an established international corporate attorney, previously representing the likes of Fortune 100 companies. He’s a self-motivated indie artist through and through, and he created his trademarked brand Acoustic Soul Music Group to rollout his independent, strategic DIY vision for his music in today’s new music industry. The combination of SJ’s catchy hooks, acoustic chops, soulful voice, chill spirit, business acumen and rapidly growing fan base has him poised for national and international popularity.